Weddingbee Blog

We chose a pretty specific theme for our engagement session, but this post is full of plenty of good tidbits of things you can do to prepare for your session, themed or not. Nerves begone! (I always like to prepare and learn as much as I can to help with any anxiety.)

I really am so thankful that my wonderful fiancé indulged me in my fantasy of pretending to be an engaged couple from the 1950s for our engagement-photo session. There was potential for that idea to look really cheesy, I’ll admit it. However, I had full faith in our wonderful photographer (Joy Neville Photography) and knew she could take that vision and do it right.

In the week leading up to our shoot, we made sure to discuss the final necessary details with our photographer, such as meeting place, time, who needed to bring what, etc. Then, before I started shopping for potential props, I took a look in our own apartment to find things that matched the theme, but also happened to have meaning to us (which was a suggestion from our photographer).
In our apartment I found:

• an old sewing kit
• a box filled with all of the ticket stubs from sporting events and concerts we’ve gone to together
• souvenirs from our travels
• a recipe box
• an old hand-me-down copy of Joy of Cooking

After that, I went shopping to find a couple of specific things I did not have at home.

I bought:

• two new dresses ($45 and $55, from Nordstrom Rack)
• a pair of shoes ($20, from a consignment store)
• a vintage popcorn bowl and a bag of popcorn
• an apron that matched one of the two dresses I planned to wear
• a few vintage soda bottles
• an old board game

I also swung by my local M.A.C. store to do a makeup trial since I needed to learn the appropriate techniques to achieve the makeup I wanted to wear.

Side note: This is a risky move, I’ll admit it. Going away from what I usually look like could have made for some funky looking pictures of myself that I hated. But, it wound up working out just fine! If you want to try something new, take a chance! This is your opportunity to get creative.

After a few practice attempts throughout the week leading up to the shoot, I felt a whole lot more comfortable with the new makeup methods.

Stay tuned for my next post in this series, which will teach you how to do makeup that looks like this:

Photography by Joy Neville Photography

More pictures to come, promise!